Captain Vincent Kompany is sidelined with a thigh problem, while Eliaquim Mangala and Nicolas Otamendi require fitness tests.
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It generally takes managers time to get used to the modern Premier League, but if anyone can get his team a trophy right away, it’s Guardiola.
City begin the Guardiola era with a home fixture against a new-look Sunderland outfit at the Eastlands.
Leicester, led by leading forward Jamie Vardy and playmaker Riyad Mahrez, shockingly won the league last season, and the champs will be hoping to get their defence off to a winning start at The KC Stadium.
Without a manager, hit by injuries and a lack of activity on the transfer front, the 4/7 on them going down looks generous, to say the least.
BT Sport will show 42 exclusively live Premier League games during the 2016/17 season, up from 38 last term.
Mourinho’s old foe Arsene Wenger at Arsenal and neighbouring Spurs’ Mauricio Pochettino have tweaked rather than overhauled their squads, and will be aiming to improve on last year’s second and third-place finishes respectively. “Of course they are stronger because they can’t make a mistake another year”.
Jose Mourinho is not afraid to come out and say United want to win the title because he knows he is at one of the biggest clubs in the world and that success is what they demand.
Guardiola has yet to sell any players this summer after running the rule over his first-team squad in preseason. Well, there’s a time and a place for naïveté and joy, but it ain’t when assessing the chances of your team ahead of a Premier League season, so here’s a much-needed dose of reality for your team.
I don’t think you can do anything but admire Ibrahimovic for what he has achieved in his career.
He’s back at his hometown club but while he has done little wrong at ‘Boro, Karanka had appeared to be critical of the winger at one point last season, saying: “I don’t want to say he is doing really well because everyone is expecting more from him”.
Bailly has the potential to develop into one of the Premier League’s best centre-backs. Adnan Januzaj is another player to watch out for after he recently joined Sunderland on loan from Manchester United. “Today is the day before the start of the Premier League”.
In Spain and Germany the vast majority of teams want to play on the floor but here it changes every week and there are teams who will try to be physical against City or kick it long. He is a stocky box-to-box midfielder that will not be seen much on the stat sheet but deserves great recognition for his brick wall defensive plays and intelligent offensive display. Heck, I might be the only one who will be doing that this weekend.
“I need time to know what Stoke City next week means, what the Etihad Stadium means”. I have to leave that with them.
It all adds up to being the most open title race I can remember but I do not see the champions being in the mix this time.
West Ham United – One of the underdog teams of last season has the talent to push some of the top clubs, again. That’s a 50-per-cent increase from the last three-year deal and many teams have already put that money to work.
“You have to be a good professional”.
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The Argentine endured a hard season a year ago as City laboured to a fourth-place finish, with the right-back struggling for form and fitness after knee ligament and ankle problems. Mourinho is seen as the man who can get the most out of the big Swede, but an uninspiring European Championship campaign didn’t exactly set United fans’ hearts racing.
